Kael's POV
The shadow army crashes into us like a wave of darkness.
I move on pure instinct, my sword cutting through shadow wolves faster than thought. Each kill sends a spike of death through my curse, but I ignore it. Pain is nothing new. Pain is familiar.
Losing Lyra would destroy me.
"Get to the safe room!" I shout at her while blocking three soldiers at once. "The hidden door behind the—"
A shadow wolf lunges at Lyra. She screams.
My heart stops.
But her hands explode with that silver-and-shadow light, and the wolf disintegrates before it reaches her. Her power activated on pure survival instinct.
"No!" I roar. "Lyra, stop! Don't use your—"
Too late.
The Shadow King's smile grows wider. "There it is. I can feel it now—your power calling to mine. Light and shadow, perfectly balanced. Just like me." He reaches toward Lyra, and tendrils of darkness snake across the floor toward her.
I leap between them, my sword cutting through the tendrils. "You want her? You'll have to kill me first."
"That can be arranged." The Shadow King's expression turns cold. "You barely survived our last fight, Reaper. And that was when you had an army backing you. Now you're alone, protecting a girl who doesn't even understand what she is."
He's right. I know he's right. But I don't care.
"Then I'll die alone," I say. "But she's not going with you."
The Shadow King sighs like I'm a disappointing child. "Very well. Let's finish what we started three hundred years ago."
He moves faster than I can track. One moment he's across the room, the next his hand is around my throat, lifting me off the ground. His strength is impossible—like fighting a mountain.
Through the bond, I feel Lyra's terror spike.
"Stop!" she screams. "Let him go!"
"Make me, daughter." The Shadow King squeezes tighter. Black spots dance in my vision. "Show me your power. Show me you're worthy of being mine."
"Don't... do it..." I gasp out. Every word is agony. "Lyra... run..."
But she doesn't run.
Her power explodes outward in a shockwave so powerful it throws the Shadow King backward. He releases me, and I crash to the floor, gasping for air.
When I look up, Lyra is glowing like a star. Silver and shadow twist around her body, and her eyes—her eyes burn with power that makes even the Shadow King pause.
"I said," Lyra's voice echoes with divine command, "LET HIM GO."
For a moment, everyone freezes. The shadow army. The Shadow King. Even me.
Then the Shadow King throws back his head and laughs with genuine delight.
"YES! That's my daughter! That's the power I've been waiting for!" He claps his hands like this is the best entertainment he's had in centuries. "You're magnificent, Lyra. Everything your mother promised you'd be."
Lyra's power flickers. "What?"
"Oh, you didn't know?" The Shadow King's smile is cruel. "Your mother and I had a deal. She would bear my child—a perfect blend of light and dark—and together, we would reshape the realms. But then she fell in love with you and tried to hide you away. Tried to suppress your glorious power." He steps closer. "But power like yours can't be contained forever. And now you've awakened, just as I always knew you would."
"You're lying," Lyra whispers.
"Am I?" The Shadow King gestures, and an image forms in the air—a memory. I see Selene, the Moon Goddess, young and desperate, making a bargain with the Shadow King. "One child," memory-Selene says. "I'll give you one child with both our powers. But after that, you leave the realms in peace."
The memory fades.
Lyra's glowing dims. Through the bond, I feel her world shattering. Her mother didn't just fall in love with the Shadow King—she made a deal with him. Used him to create a weapon.
"Don't listen to him," I rasp, forcing myself to stand despite my crushed throat. "He's twisting the truth. Selene loved you—"
"Selene USED her," the Shadow King interrupts. "Just like the Celestial Court used her. Just like everyone has used her." He extends his hand to Lyra. "But I won't use you, daughter. I'll teach you to embrace your full power. To stop being afraid of what you are. Come with me willingly, and I'll show you what you're truly capable of."
Lyra stares at his outstretched hand. Her power wavers between light and shadow, unable to choose.
"Lyra." I push through the bond, sending her every ounce of certainty I have. "He's manipulating you. Don't—"
The Shadow King waves his other hand, and I fly backward, slamming into the wall so hard my ribs crack. Pain explodes through me, and through the bond, Lyra feels it too.
She gasps, doubling over.
"You see?" the Shadow King says softly. "The bond makes you weak. As long as you're tied to the Reaper, you'll always be held back by his mortality, his weakness, his curse. But I can break that bond. Set you free. And then, together, we'll be unstoppable."
"You can break the bond?" Lyra's voice is small, desperate.
No. No, no, no.
"Of course." The Shadow King's smile is gentle, fatherly. "I'm the God of Balance, remember? I can sever any connection. All you have to do is ask."
Through the bond, I feel Lyra's temptation. She doesn't want to be bound forever to a cursed killer. She doesn't want to feel my pain for eternity. And the Shadow King is offering her freedom.
"Lyra, please," I whisper. Blood drips from my mouth. "Don't trust him."
She looks at me, tears streaming down her face. "I'm sorry, Kael. I'm so sorry. But I can't... I can't let you die because of me."
She turns to the Shadow King. "If I go with you willingly, you'll leave him alone? You'll let him live?"
"Of course, daughter. I only want you. The Reaper means nothing to me."
It's a lie. I can see it in his eyes. The moment Lyra agrees, he'll kill me just to prove his power over her.
But Lyra's too desperate to see it.
"Then I'll—"
"WAIT!" A new voice booms through the fortress.
A portal tears open, and Commander Darius steps through with fifty armed warriors. Behind him, I see Zara, Elder Finn, and—impossibly—High Priestess Calista in chains.
"The girl doesn't have to choose," Darius announces. He's holding up a crystal that glows with captured memories. "Because we have proof that everything the Shadow King just said is a lie."
The Shadow King's expression darkens. "You dare interrupt—"
"Selene never made a deal with you," Darius continues. "You forced yourself on her. She fought back, and when she realized she was pregnant, she ran. She loved Lyra from the moment she was conceived, and she died protecting her from YOU."
He throws the crystal to the ground. It shatters, and images flood the room—the real truth. Selene fighting the Shadow King. Selene crying as she hides her pregnancy. Selene using her last breath to cast a spell that would hide Lyra's power.
"She loved you," Darius says to Lyra. "More than her own life. And she never wanted you to become a weapon. She wanted you to be free."
Lyra stares at the images, her power fluctuating wildly.
The Shadow King's face twists with rage. "ENOUGH!"
His power explodes outward, and suddenly I understand—this was never about taking Lyra peacefully. This was about breaking her, making her doubt everything, until she had no choice but to accept his version of reality.
And we just ruined his plan.
"If you won't come willingly," the Shadow King snarls, "then I'll MAKE you."
He lunges for Lyra.
I throw myself forward despite my broken ribs, my crushed throat, my failing body. The bond gives me one last burst of strength.
I reach Lyra first.
But the Shadow King is faster.
His blade—formed of pure darkness—pierces through my chest and into Lyra's shoulder.
We both scream.
Through the bond, we feel each other's pain mixing, multiplying, becoming unbearable.
And then something impossible happens.
The bond—which wasn't supposed to complete for three more days—suddenly SNAPS into place.
Our souls merge.
I feel everything Lyra has ever felt. She feels everything I've ever experienced. Three hundred years of death and twenty-five years of kindness collide inside both of us.
The Shadow King stumbles back, shocked. "What—?"
Lyra and I speak with one voice: "You made a mistake."
Our combined power—her divine healing mixed with my curse of death—erupts outward in a wave that obliterates every shadow creature in the fortress.
The Shadow King shields himself, but even he's pushed back.
When the light fades, Lyra and I are still standing. The wound in my chest is healing, silver light pouring from Lyra's hands directly into me. The blade in her shoulder turns to smoke and vanishes.
We're one soul in two bodies now. Unbreakable. Unstoppable.
And absolutely terrifying.
"Impossible," the Shadow King whispers. "The bond wasn't supposed to complete yet. I calculated—"
"You calculated wrong," I say.
"You forgot something important," Lyra adds.
Together, we finish: "True bonds complete when they're needed most. Not when it's convenient."
The Shadow King's eyes narrow. Then he smiles—but this time, it's not confident. It's calculating.
"Well played, daughter. And you too, Reaper." He bows mockingly. "You've won this battle. But the war is far from over. And now that your bond is complete, I know exactly how to break you both."
"What does that mean?" Lyra demands.
"It means," the Shadow King says as he opens a portal behind him, "that I'm going to enjoy watching you destroy each other from the inside."
He steps through and vanishes.
The shadow army dissolves with him.
Silence fills the fortress.
Then Lyra collapses. I catch her, and through our new, deeper bond, I feel what's wrong.
The bond completing early saved us. But it also means we're now sharing everything—including my curse.
Lyra is now feeling every death I've ever caused. Three hundred years of killing, all at once, slamming into her gentle healer's soul.
She's screaming silently inside her mind, and there's nothing I can do to stop it.